“I Come Back To You Now, At The Turn of the Tide…”

Hello, hello, all my fellow bookish folks of the interwebs!! ^^ I hope you’ve all been doing lovely this week, and that you’ve all been reading some Very Good Books. (See, I hath even capitalized it! XD One must always capitalize the essentials, as Aunt Eugenia has reminded us, in her very Aunt Eugenia-esque way. My fellow Emma fans shall understand this reference.)

My week has been filled with a great deal of tea and pigeons and books (absolutely delightful ones!! I am quite liking all the new books that have been added to Kindle Unlimited). I have also, however, been swamped. I have been buried in books, lost in the woods of my own mind (for my mind is very much a whimsical, twisty forest woodland now), and have been lost in the swamp of emails I ought to answer… Hence why I haven’t written on this blog for quite a bit now. (I miss writing to y’all though!! And bombarding thee with books!)

And so, today, I thought I perhaps might wander onto here and update you all on where I have been in February.

And regarding the title…

Well, I was searching for dramatic quotes for “I have returned!” and this one popped up. XD Who can resist a Gandalf quote?? No one, that is who. Especially not me. I jump at any chance to quote LOTR at you. I simply cannot help myself. It comes with being a Ringer, after all.

I… do not really know what this post is to be about. A tad rambly, no doubt. I’ll probably go from talking about pixies to random tangents about which bread is the best. 🙂 *shrugs* Who knows?

Oh yes, and I’ve been meaning to show you this for a bit now…

….

Hehe… :DDD

I was bored.

I saw Millie Florence make this on her Pinterest.

Like an utter madwoman, I decided why not make one of my own…. XD

It is… peculiar and strange and very very odd. But at the same time, very very accurate. So…. ta-da?

I also filmed a little day in the life vlog a couple days back! Which I rarely do because as much as I adore fun writerly vlogs, I adore the editing bits of it much less. However, if any of y’all are curious as to what a day in the life of a teen author looks like (and would like to this strange, interesting tree I found), tis up on YouTube!

Aside from all those, I’ve been mainly cozied up this week with books or writing my own story. Writing has been going semi-well for me. It’s been lovely to write a new book and to just wander around in this story world and see where it takes me. <33 (And pixies!!! I am one of those writers who works best in secret, but I shall say one thing: there are pixies in this book and they are gloriously chaotic and fun. And they have such fun names!!!)

Of course, I am in Act Two. And so it is all sort of a dreadful mess at the moment. (It’s… a lovely concept. I cannot say the same for the writing though.) To be honest, I… have been struggling recently.

Part of it is because I’ve been swamped. With reading and trying to pitch myself to podcasts and book blogs and trying to manage a YouTube channel.

And the other part of it is… probably self comparison and perfectionism.

It really is hard. Very hard. To look at other people online, other middle-grade authors, and see how well they’re doing. Book signings, school visits, productive writing days. And it’s hard not to look at that and wonder, “Why am I not there yet? Why amn’t I good enough?”

Which is, of course, ridiculous. After all, it hardly makes sense for me to compare myself to someone who’s been publishing and writing for over ten years. But perfectionism and self comparison has always been something I’ve struggled with. Every time I think I’ve beaten it, it rears its wretched, ugly head and rises up again. *sigh*

I did, however, while writing this book, realize that I’ve given every one of my main characters these two things: a sword and a cloak. How can I not give my characters those, really? I adore swords and cloaks.

I’ve also been trying to pitch myself to podcasts and book blogs. It’s been… going… alright, I suppose. I’ve been scrounging the interwebs to find podcasts and book blogs to pitch to, and so far, I’ve gotten one no, and two yes’s! Which is really exciting!!

Truth be told, it’s also terrifying. I would indeed rather be curled up in my little writing cave with just a cup of tea and be left to write alone. It is… scary, putting one’s book out there. But staying alone in one’s writing cave hasn’t gotten any writer anywhere, has it? (Well, I suppose it has. Finishing drafts and such. But it shan’t do any good if you’re trying to get your book out there.)

It’s been both exciting and mildly exhausting trying to scrounge up said podcasts and book blogs, so if any of y’all have any recommendations to who I could pitch myself to, that would be greatly appreciated it!

I suppose that’s where I’ve been these past few weeks. <3 I do hope, however, to get back to my usual blogging schedule (I say that as if I have any schedule at all… XD I do wonder now. Ought I have a blogging schedule? Say, Monday and Friday?) soon!! I have indeed missed y’all greatly.

Do let me know down in the comments what you thought and how your own writing is going! I’d love to hear from you! :))

And before I leave you, here. A lovely, little quote about spring. :))

courtesy of pinterest.

Till next time, and wishing y’all a very wonderful month ahead!

-Isabelle